Sunday, July 16, 2006

Freedom!

We're back from Kadesh. What an incredible week. This year featured a new curriculum called "Freedom." We worked with teens all week trying to get them to cut themselves free from the things that hold them back from a close relationship with Christ. We had a great group (as always) and after this year's Thursday night event, I don't know that I'll ever look at Communion the same way again. It's top secret Kadesh info, though -- if you want to know what happened, attend a Kadesh session four years from now!

Another thing I love about Kadesh is that they offer childcare for group leaders with children. This is why Kadesh is the only youth group event in which I can fully participate. We had wonderful babysitters this year, including Melissa, who is the daughter of this guy. (I called Melissa "Meagan" for a whole day before she straightened me out. Ugh.) Melissa had the challenge of putting Jenna to bed one night. I asked her how it went the next day and she said, "She fought it at first, but then I just started praying over her and she went to sleep." See, even your toddlers can have a great spiritual experience at Kadesh! And Julia had a blast at KidQuest. One more year of that and she'll be old enough for Learning to Lead.

I did work in time to have a mini-reunion with some of my friends from the Highland office, where I used to work. Jenna and I met up with Brenda Chrane, Gina Lewis and Mike Cope on Tuesday. Later in the week, I ran into Beverly in the Campus Center.

Any of you ACU grads remember the Dairy Queen on Ambler on the way out of town toward Hamby? I think there was some farmland or something behind it. Now, there's a Chili's and a Cracker Barrel and a big ol' honkin' Wal-Mart back there! All that wasn't there a year ago. The new Wal-Mart came in quite handy when Chad and I realized we had showed up for a week at Kadesh without ONE SINGLE TOWEL OR WASHCLOTH.

Now we are packing and moving closer to the closing date of our house. We've been getting some really sweet cards from members of our new church. Julia and I were looking at photos on the church website of their summer kids' program and were surprised to see her in some of them. I remembered the program started the same Sunday we were there interviewing at the beginning of June. So it was neat to see those pictures and Julia already being a part of things at LRC. Speaking of LRC, I've added a link to the Little Rock Church website.

Now we're looking forward to Chad's cousin Kimberly Nall's wedding in Dallas this weekend. Julia will be the flower girl and we are all so excited. Kimberly was our junior bridesmaid 13 years ago so it's an extra honor for us that she chose Julia to be in her wedding.

8 Comments:

Kim and I drove through Abilene this morning on our way out to Albuquerque, NM to see Ryan and Amy. We were also surprised to see the new Wal-Mart, Chili's and all the new stuff out there. It is always growing on the hill. I miss visiting Abilene. I think we are going out for Homecoming this year. Glad you had such a good time at Kadesh and made it back home safely. I guess it won't be your home much longer. :-( But I'm glad to see your new church family welcoming you already.

Kadesh was AWESOME!! What an amazing week-and yes, Thursday night changed a lot for me. Praise God for freedom in Christ! :)

I read your blog occassionally, but have never commented-but it was nice to put a name to a face last week! I am glad you had a great time-my group was awesome, too. I think in some ways they blessed me more than I blessed them!

I pray that God blesses you in your move and that He will continue to use you and Chad in amazing ways. Blessings~

About Me

I'm a wife, mom and writer. I'm a Texan who just happens to live in Little Rock, Arkansas. I love watching my children when they're sleeping. I love rock music way too much. My husband is the most incredible blessing God has given me. I eat right out of the ice cream carton when no one's around.